DESTINATIONS — LATIN AMERICA
Inca sales
The trek to Machu Picchu is on many travellers’ wishlists. Ben Lerwill helps you find the right version for your client
more than a week when Machu Picchu finally appeared. The trek had been a long but uplifting one – full of blue skies and yawning valleys, campsite stews and Incan ruins – and the end was now in sight.
W Dozens of lofty peaks were
spread before us, and Peru’s fabled lost city was perched dramatically in their midst. Our walking poles, hewn from trailside trees earlier in the week, were raised in triumph. Long-distance hiking in the Andes doesn’t tend to be lightly undertaken. Seven of us had done the trail together, assisted by two guides, two cooks, four mule drivers and a team of
e’d been walking the trail through the mountains for
some 15 mules. We’d walked the Choquequirao Trail, a longer version of the classic Inca Trail and one of the many alternative hikes – almost all of them culminating at Machu Picchu – now on offer from tour operators. We’d camped en route. The long ascents had been tough at times, and I’d certainly recommend a good base level of fitness for this particular trek, but it had been a deeply exhilarating walk.
l THE CLASSIC VERSION As is common with the vast majority of treks here, our journey had begun in the city of Cusco. Formerly the capital of the Inca Empire – which in its 16th-century pomp stretched from central Chile
all the way to Ecuador – it remains a colourful place. It’s still possible to visit several monuments from the days before the Spanish arrived, including the remarkable Saksaywaman fortress above town. The city has long been geared to visitors, with an airport and a ready supply of hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops. For many hikers who come here, the chance to walk the classic Inca Trail is the main draw. It’s by far the best-known trek on offer, both in the Cusco region and South America as a whole. It’s a beautiful four-day, three- night walk, covering just 23 miles but encompassing jungle, cloud- forest and spectacular Andean panoramas, as well as a number
of historical remains. It follows a trail formerly used by the Incas themselves, and finishes with a descent to Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate, a mountain pass with a classic view.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the trek has also become oversubscribed. Numbers on the trail have grown so much in past decades that authorities have restricted the number of hikers starting out to 500 per day. There’s a permit system, making advance booking essential – these permits are generally purchased by operators and local guides, then sold as part of a package. It’s no longer possible to hike the trail independently, and porters are employed as a matter of course
4 December 2014 —
travelweekly.co.uk • 59
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